Reunification

Wow.  Apparently life is moving in fast forward in our household.  How on earth did it get to be the weekend before Christmas?  Seems that I have been remiss in my blog!

So...long story or short story.  Hmmm.  Well lets be honest, I can be verbose and drag out a story.  ;-) But hey, at least I can admit to it.

So in my last blog...several months ago, we announced the addition of K10.  A beautiful 2 year old girl with big loopy curly hair and lovely brown eyes.  She is the half sister of K8 and K9.  It is been so amazing to watch the children reconnect and rebuild their relationship but...it has been exhausting as well.  More on that in a future blog.  For this blog, I thought I would just share with you how it felt to help siblings find each other again.

The first time we met K10 was in October.  K8 was beside herself with excitement.  She had been talking about K10 since long before we knew they would be reunited.  "Mommy...I have a si-her," she would tell me.  "I know honey.  Do you want to tell me about her?"  K8 would have a haunted look in her eyes and sadly say, "No.  Her gone now."  It broke my heart.  The day I told her we knew where K10 was and asked her if she wanted to visit her little sister, the scream of excitement nearly blew out the house windows.  "Right now?!  Can I see my si-her right now?"  In that moment, I knew beyond any shadow of doubt that reuniting K8 to K10 was absolutely the thing she needed most to begin her healing process.  My biggest concern was the fact that K10 was so young, I doubted she would even remember her siblings.

The day we were to meet K10, we picked K8 and K9 up from school.  Their energy was contagious and we started the  nearly 2 hour drive.  Within 30 minutes, both kids were fast asleep which allowed the hubby and I a small amount of peace and quite.  As were neared our destination, K8 awoke and started telling us all about K10.  The words were coming out so fast, I couldn't understand them.  At one point I heard, "I will teach her to walk and I will give her a bottle..."  It saddened me that her memories of her sister were over a year old.  The sister she remembered was an 8 month old baby.  The reality of who she would see would be a nearly 3 year old walking/talking toddler that could down chicken nuggets and french fries like a linebacker!  I tried to explain to K8 that K10 already knew how to walk now.  I told her that K10 had been growing just like SHE had been growing.  K8 clearly didn't understand.

We pulled into the McDonalds parking lot and waited.  Within a few minutes the other foster family pulled in.  Hubby left me getting kids out of carseats as he met the other dad and saw our soon to be daughter for the first time.  As I came around the corner of the van, he smiled at me and mouthed "Oh my God...she is so cute!"  I smiled and then nearly tripped on K8 who had come to a complete stop in front of me.  She had a look of panic on her face and so I squatted down next to her.  "Sweetie, look in mommy's eyes."  As her frightened eyes found mine, I asked her if she recognized her sister.  She sadly shook her head no.  "Honey, this little girl is your sister.  I promise you.  Remember I said she got bigger while she was gone?"  K8 quietly nodded her head and reached out for a hug.

At this point we suggested heading into the building to let the kids run and play in the playplace.  It didn't take long for the kids to adjust to each other and start running around.  We laughed as K10 would  grab foster dad's straw and throw it to the floor before he could stop her and by the time it was time to go, the kids were smiling and laughing.  "Mommy?!!!" Asked K9.  "Can we play with my sister again?"  It was the first indication K9 gave me that all of this was important to him too.

"Yes, my love.  Mommy and daddy will make sure of it."

To be continued...